Friday, December 18, 2009

A few weeks ago we met Adam, Jeannette, Jonah and Oona for a toddler-sized romp in the Happiest Place on Earth. A&J got us in with their special mojo and even got Zack a pair of ears.

Here's Oona, Zack and Jonah while we kicked around Downtown Disney before eating. As you can see, Zack was very curious about the ears.

VERY curious.

While we were kicking around Jonah noted that Downtown Disney had bypassed any Thanksgiving decorations and gone straight to Christmas. I suggested it was because there weren't any Thanksgiving decorations, and Oona said "That's right... except for handprint turkeys."

Here we are waiting for The Tiki Room to open. One great side effect of D-Land was that it kept Zack's attention away from the camera. Usually when he sees the camera he says "bay-bee?" and gets upset if he can't watch movies of himself on the screen right away. Even if we don't cave, it's still impossible to take more pictures.

I was worried The Tiki Room would be too loud and scary for Zack, but he just quietly took it all in, I'm sure wondering what damn fool place his parents had brought him to this time.

His expression while experiencing the barrage of Tiki was pretty much just like this, which is how he looked for the whole Jungle Cruise. As with The Tiki Room he seem determined to pay attention but was clearly pretty bewildered by the whole affair. I realized he had little reason to doubt any of the animals he saw were real.

Oona was a little more dubious.

Family shot in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, which was all decorated for the season.

Zack likes to pound on Julie's chest while she goes "aahhhhhhhhh."

Here's Oona and Zack outside The Mad Hatter, where Jeannette got Zack his monogrammed set of ears.

He dug them right away, and wears them around the house often.

Can you tell which of these children understand sitting still? No hints. (This was the best group shot in the cup that I could get.)

For the first time ever in my Disneyland travels, the Storybook Land ride was open. I finally got to see what was on the other side of Monstro's maw.

So scary...

Unless, that is, you have a little car to chew on.

It turns out Storybook Land is AWESOME. It's a series of models of various settings in the Disney cartoons, set in little landscapes. As you can imagine, my eyes were popping out of my head. It was great to see it at night, but it didn't result in good pictures. I include this one only because I just missed what would've looked like a giant mallard duck who was standing just to the left of frame.

Our guide for this one wasn't the best. To get the idea, give yourself a slightly nasal twang and say the following in as flat and boring a way as you can: "Here is where Aladdin and Jasmine went on a magic carpet ride, and discovered a whole new world."

After Storybook Land we headed over to Small World, lit up in psychedelic holiday finery. Unfortunately, the beckoning colors had attracted a huge line, and we chose not to play.

Instead we ducked into Toontown for a look around Mickey and Minnie's houses. Looking at this, Oona noted "Minnie is very strict about what can go on her Christmas tree."

In the production studio in the back of Mickey's house there are a number of labelled drawers. This one has always made me a little supicious...

That was about all the good craziness Team Cross could handle, so we said goodnight and headed out. I couldn't help take a few more of the Small World lights.

And again.

We took a quick spin up the stairs in Sleeping Beauty's Castle and saw the dioramas in there. Well worth it. After we left the castle we turned around to check out the Xmas glamor at night, which you can see was pretty sublime. We even caught a taste of the holiday parade just as we reached the end of Main Street, but by that time our eyes were already full.

That was a great day. Big thanks to A&J for that one. We had a rollicking time going to D-Land before their wedding in 1992, and going back now with our kids was really something special. Can't wait for next time.